AICAFMHA:
promoting mental health for young Australians
Australian Infant, Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health Association Ltd
ABN 87 093 479 022


Collated Mental Health News Items for 2010
Collated Mental Health News Items for 2010

Displaying items 1 to 5

Reduction of health visitors impacts on mothers' mental wellbeing
 Study finds that health visitors trained in mental health can help support mothers to not develop postnatal depression.
Health visitors trained to look after new mothers psychologically wellbeing following childbirth can prevent them developing depression over the next year, according to a report published today in the Cambridge University Press Journal Psychological Medicine.
Researchers from Sheffield, Nottingham and Leicester universities found that there was significant reduction in the number of future cases of depression in women living in the community who had not been depressed when they joined the study if the health visitor had been trained in mental health and psychological approaches.


Link related to this news item: www.youngminds.org.uk/mailshot-news/reduction-of-health-visitors-impacts-on-mothers2019-mental-wellbeing
Posted:Aug 20, 2010
Foster Kids Gain From Mentoring, Relationship Skills
 TUESDAY, August 3 (HealthDay News) -- Mentoring and relationship skills programs can improve the mental health of foster children, a new study from the University of Colorado suggests.
The study appears in the August issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
"Children who have been maltreated and placed in foster care are at risk for significant mental health problems including depression, post-traumatic stress, dissociation, social problems, suicidal behavior, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorders," researchers Heather N. Taussig and Sara E. Culhane, of the University of Colorado, said in a news release from the journal's publisher. "Studies of Medicaid claims suggest that as many as 57 percent of youths in foster care meet criteria for mental disorder."

Link related to this news item: www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/641657.html
Posted:Aug 17, 2010
Health project for youngsters (Great Yarmouth Mercury)
 YOUNG people who have made a significant contribution to a project to ensure health services are geared towards their needs are to showcase their work at a national conference.
The group of four, aged between 15 and 17, will travel to Leicester in October to speak about their work with NHS Great Yarmouth and Waveney on the You're Welcome project.
The Department of Health initiative has been designed to ensure health services are young people friendly, take account of their needs and offer an appropriate service.
In Yarmouth and Waveney, a successful pilot project saw young people working with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS).
After completing interviews and making observations while visiting CAMHS, they made recommendations designed to further improve the service offered to young people.

Link related to this news item: www.greatyarmouthmercury.co.uk/content/yarmouthmercury/news/story.aspx?brand=GYMOnline&category=news&tBrand=GYMonline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED16%20Aug%202010%2015%3A50%3A41%3A673
Posted:Aug 17, 2010
Why are we robbing our littlies to preach Paul? (Sydney Morning Herald)
 About one in five young Australians suffer from mental illnesses. These include anxiety, depressive disorders, anorexia and bulimia. Some 10 per cent of young Australians suffer abuse or neglect while one in five have a parent with poor mental health or a physical disability.
Young people with mental health issues are at increased risk of dropping out of school, becoming homeless or ending up in the justice system. They are five times more likely to abuse drugs or alcohol (and wind up having unsafe sex, drink-driving or brawling) and more likely to harm or kill themselves.
Children's mental health services are poorly funded. But, unlike adult mental health services, this is not because we lack the money but because we have chosen to spend it on something else.

Link related to this news item: www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/why-are-we-robbing-our-littlies-to-preach-paul-20100816-125xp.html
Posted:Aug 17, 2010
Foster-care kids suffer at school
 CHILDREN living in foster care suffer higher rates of poor mental and physical health, which limits their academic outcomes.
The finding is contained in one of the most detailed studies of its kind in Australia.
The study -- released yesterday as a joint project between the Victorian branches of Anglicare and Wesley Mission -- found nearly 40 per cent of children and young people suffered "functional limitations" due to their placement in out-of-home care with either a foster parent or in kinship care with a relative.
Almost 90 per cent of children in out-of-home care for longer than seven years had a long-term health problem, more than half had learning difficulties, a third had repeated a grade and a quarter had been suspended from school.
"Children may have accumulated considerable risks for education failure as a result of trauma and deprivation experienced prior to entering care," the report states.
The findings show that children in care can be categorised into three groups in terms of their education: "damaged", "disengaging" and "doing well".

Link related to this news item: www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/foster-care-kids-suffer-at-school/story-e6frg6nf-1225886413166
Posted:Jul 27, 2010

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